Northern Ireland’s former Justice Minister David Ford has called for clarity on access to UK government funding for tackling paramilitarism.

Mr Ford has written to Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire to ask him to clarify contradictory statements from Northern Ireland Executive ministers, The Irish News reports.

Finance Minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir had told MLAs the funding “will not be released until the executive agrees a more detailed action plan”.

However, Justice Minister Claire Sugden later denied this and said the money would be drawn down when the Executive decided to do so.

Ms Sugden told the Northern Ireland Assembly: “We are not going to draw down money for the sake of optics – we are going to draw it down for the sake of using it in the most effective and efficient way and indeed that has been the process to date.”

Mr Ford said he hoped Mr Brokenshire would “bring clarity to a very confusing situation”.